The Devil's Ringtone
by LeonardKnight
Summary: Private finds an abandoned cellphone in the bench, but is it really worth taking it?
1. Don't Take What Isn't Officially Yours

Private's Narration

One of the features of cellphones nowadays is customizable ring tones, at least that's what I heard from Kowalski when I asked him a few days ago. A person can now input his own choice of sound that will play whenever there is an incoming phone call.

This is where my scary story begins. One night me and the guys were inside the HQ preparing to go to bed. In my left flipper I had with me a phone that I found earlier this morning that was lying on the bench. Apparently someone who was in a hurry must have accidentally left the phone. I immediately picked it up seeing as no one was really interested in the phone and took it under my wing.

The next morning since me, Skipper, Rico and Kowalski were busy with our morning routine, I hadn't had the whole morning to really tinker with the device. It wasn't until later that afternoon that we had all the free time we wanted to do. Skipper, being as he is, wasn't too cool about the Double Rainbow ringtone that was playing. He commented that I should ditch the default ring tone because it kept reminding him of hippies. "Private, what in monstrosity is that sound?, change it now soldier" Skipper said. "Sure thing Skipper, I'll change it just as soon as I figure out how" I replied to him.

It didn't take me long to figure out where the list of ringtones were stored, there were lots of it, probably more than fifty, but I had been given the simple task of choosing only one. I had browsed through the whole phone, scouring for one that suits my personality, then in my haste, I saw one that had a peculiar name. One ringtone had almost like an evil vibe that sent shivers down my spine. It was called "The Devil". For a simple ringtone it sure does have a weird title. But seeing as how it was a just probably just a simple ringtone, I just shrugged it off and went with a new ringtone 'Beyond Samsung'. It had a cool beat to it plus Skipper loved to listen to it.

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><p>Private narrates the whole story and his scary experience. I hope you guys like it. I'll try to make the 2nd chapter longer.<p> 


	2. Horrible Dreams

"Now that's a cool beat soldier" Skipper complemented. "Thanks Skipper" I replied, happy that he already approved my choice of sound. Eager to share the news with our two other comrades, he called for Kowalski and Rico who were nearby. "Hey Kowalski, Rico, come over here a second, listen to this tune, it's catchy. Alright Private, cue the catchy jingle." He said, pointing his flipper to my phone.

I pressed the play button seemingly unaware that I had accidentally played the "The Devil's Ringtone." Everyone fell silent as it started playing. While listening to it, instead of hearing a seemingly metal/rock type of tune as what was to be expected to be found in it's suggested name, what instead came out is the creepy sound of a choking woman screaming for help while a man with a terrifyingly demonic voice was laughing in the background, as if enjoying the desperate woman's agony. The duration of the ringtone was exactly two minutes and after even a minute of listening to it, the screaming brings to a halt, and the man with a low, raspy voice suddenly says, "You thought I wasn't real ha?" Then it ends in a fading demonic laugh, at last it just stopped.

Now I was really terrified and confused, did we just witness a murder via ringtone or was it just a prank?. If it was a prank, then I can breath a sigh of relief, but if it was real, it could be used as possible evidence for a crime scene. Regardless, I didn't want to know either way, and I felt another chill run down my spine.

"What the deuce soldier? that wasn't the one that I heard before" said Skipper, seemingly wanting a reply from me. "Sorry Sir, I accidentally push the "Devil's ringtone, but don't worry I'll delete it right away" I replied.

I muster the courage to delete the 'Devil's Ringtone", hoping to never hear it again. Oh what trouble have I gotten myself into.

"Scary sound isn't it guys. We just witnessed someone being choked to death" I said, still frightened about the whole incident just thinking about it.

But Kowalski who had an explanation for everything, refused to believe it and added, "Private, private, private, don't believe everything you hear, I can explain, it's probably just some harmless prank, conjured up by pranksters to scare people like you thinking it was real. There's no evidence linking it to an actual murder". But I retorted to Kowalski's statement, "It almost sounds real to me, you all heard it"

But Kowalski added "Woah, woah, Private relax, it's not real, like what I said, it's just a prank, just don't believe everything you hear, right Rico?", "Yup" Rico said.

Well Kowalski is right I can't prove that something is real just by just listening to it. Needless to say, I was just being paranoid like Skipper.

Pretty soon, our focus of attention changed when Skipper intervenes to talk about the whole situation as if to announce something important "Everybody relax, ok listen, whatever happened here tonight stays here, we don't speak to anyone about this incident especially to high mighty king himself Julien, we can't risk this going out of hand in the whole zoo. I trust all of you to keep your beaks shut...like this never happened. Tomorrow morning I don't want to hear anything about evil ringtone murders, got it?"

Me, Kowalski and Rico nod our heads up and down to affirm and promise that this whole incident shall be forgotten tomorrow morning.

"Ok men it's late, time to prepare for bed. Oh and Private, relax ok? It's not real" said Skipper, patting his flippers softly on my back.

"Thanks for the advice" I replied happily with a grin on my face.

It felt comforting to know that the guys were always there to protect me when I needed it and it gave me a sense of relief. Although I still can't help but imagine that creepy tune was still lingering in my mind. This puzzled me a lot, but I was too tired to think of it too much and eventually I covered myself up with my blanket and dozed off to the silent hours of the night.

But it didn't end there, no it didn't, the evil ringtone continued to haunt me even in my sleep. I have never experienced a more frightening dream than this before, but once was enough for me.

I was in a hallway of rooms somewhere in a hotel. All I could see were these doors right in front of me, each with a hotel number engraved on it, and in my mind I asked myself what am I doing here. So I yelled out Skipper, Rico and Kowalski names hoping that they would hear and come to my rescue. But to no avail, the place was dead silent as if no one could hear my scream. In a haste I scoured every room, looking from door to door...I saw nothing nor heard anyone. Then while I was checking every room I heard a chattering of laughter echo behind me, it sounded like they were approaching from the darkened side of the corridor.

Obviously this was enough to frighten me so I quickly went inside the nearest door to my left and locked myself in there. I wasn't interested in finding out what it wanted from me.

The echos continued to advance and I could hear scratches near the doorway as if they were trying to claw their way in.

After about five minutes of what seemed like an eternity, it stopped. I felt a sigh of relief but still sat nearly frozen in fear.

"I guess it stopped" I muttered to myself quietly.

The room I locked myself in was almost pitch black, I could not see anything in front of me. I walked around waving my flippers back and forth in the dark hoping to find some sort of light source. Luckily I did find an old lava lamp that still works, I twisted the knob that turned it on, thus lighting the whole room. Finally I was about to scour the whole place without further complications. When I surveyed the room, I found out that I had entered a child's playroom, with toys scattered around in piles.

To help defend myself from any incoming enemy, my weapon of choice was a simple baseball bat. I was willing to use it to knock to my opponents in the head and render them unconscious, long enough to give me time to escape, or wherever safe spot I can cling to, despite it going against my belief that 'violence begets more violence.'

Contrary to my personality of a being a pacifist I never wanted to be this violent, I was always a man, (or a penguin in this case) of peace, but desperate times call for desperate measures. And If I ever wanted to get out of here alive, I was willing to do everything I can to survive. I already felt prepared that I can defend myself well completely.

But what I wasn't prepared for was the one that was about to come...


	3. Room 344

Just as I was busy trying to gather more stuff than I can use to defend myself, I heard 5 knocks on the door, each escalating and becoming louder than the previous one.

My fear was trying to pull me back but, I manage to gather enough courage and asked who was trying to knock. "Wh-whos there?" I asked.

There was no definite response and I was met with an awkward silence.

Then unexpectedly just when I thought that everything was alright, a creepy wailing sound came from behind the door, I clearly heard the faint sound of a lady screaming, crying out in desperation. I wanted to help...really I wanted to, but I couldn't for I was paralyzed with fear to even go near the door.

Alas, the noise was too loud for me to even bear, In order to protect myself from losing my sense of hearing, I covered my ears with earmuffs that I found lying under the bed. In addition, I mumbled random words to further drown the noise. "I can't hear you, blah, blah, blah, bla..."

As the babbling and cackling grew louder and louder, so did my voice uttering random words. Soon enough I had realized I have my limits, so I screamed on the top of my voice "Whoever you are, just leave me alone!"

All of a sudden, the noise finally stops and again silence had filled the room.

Then, another noise erupted! This time the unidentified sound was more like a savage, deep howl and it came from within the wall just behind me! I sat nearly frozen in fear as the vicious wail now appeared to move around the room while booming louder and more angrier than ever! I started crying and became completely paralyzed by what happened next. The wall in front of me began bulging forward, as if something were trying to push its way through a cellophane panel! My unsolicited quandary was reinforced by a now deafening and terrifying roar.

I then heard my name being whispered, quietly at first, then louder and more distinct. "Private, oh Private, come here boy, don't be scared, we won't hurt you"

I could understand that this unknown entity that kept calling my name was trying to trick me in order that I would near it. Well if they think I'm that stupid, they think wrong.

Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse...they did.

The chandelier on the ceiling began swinging in circles like it was possessed by an evil wind. The unknown creature within the wall was still trying to push its way in, but with more and more violent determination! Suddenly, just like that, everything stopped...

I knew from this point on that it was getting worse by the minute and I had to quickly find a way out to save myself and my sanity.

Looking around for a way to escape, I noticed that the windows and air vents had somehow been barricaded, as if they knew I was going to use those to try to escape. Having no other choice, my only chance of escape is the door in front of me, I knew very well that if those entities were still outside trying to pry their way in, I have to fight my way through to survive. I couldn't let my fear get the best of me, I had to control it somehow.

I opened the door with force while holding my baseball bat, readily able to swing it back and forth to power my way through.

Oddly enough though, there was nothing outside, like they were never there. That's when I noticed that the room behind me was being engulfed in a black mist, everything that was exposed to it had vanished into thin air. If I didn't get a move on quickly, I too might vanish into thin air. I tried to run as fast as I could, I turned right to the direction of the hallway and as I turn left at its end, I find myself looking in front of another hallway, but not as nearly as dark as before.

The exception of dim light coming from Room 344 that was ajar at the end of it was enough to light my path and give me a glimmer of hope that I will survive.

While I was running for my life, I can hear a laughter of children following me behind, and their voice kept saying "Where are you going Private? Come back and play with us!"

Upon hearing that, it somehow motivated me to run even faster than usual. At that point I didn't care whether I was tired or not, the only thing that mattered to me was the fact I had to stay alive. Survival was my only viable option.

Then I remembered what Skipper had taught me, If I wanted to increase my speed I had to slide using my belly. I jumped as far as I could and landed on my belly, then slid for my life. Finally I passed through the door with ease and quickly slammed and locked the door in front of me.

Once again I locked myself inside a room, only this time I knew that I what number of the room I put myself in. It was number 344. I took out the lava lamp I found earlier and decided explore what room I let myself in this time. I realized that after much observation and exploring that I wasn't inside old hotel after all, instead I was actually in an old abandoned apartment.

That would explain why I saw a kitchen in the previous room I was in, hotel guest rooms don't have a kitchen, only apartment rooms do. I was about to laugh myself silly and what I saw when I turned around made my eyes grew wide with disgust. Hanging by her neck was a young woman, it appears as though she had been strangled to death by some unknown assailant. Her eyes were as pale as white, her mouth agape, and the top part of her head looks like it has been bludgeoned to death. Plus the woman was wearing a beautiful but tattered white cloth. Her decomposing corpse filled the air with vile stench and darkness brought with it a cold chill of evil. What makes it worse is that she is seen with blood dripping all over her body.

In short, it was a horrific sight to look at and I tried to look away while covering my nose from that awful stench.

I'm no detective but based what I witness here tonight she had been raped before being killed with a blow to a head and finally strangled to make sure she was dead. The killer was really heartless.

I tried so hard to look away when all of a sudden I heard someone in a low, raspy voice say "Psst, psst, psst"

At that point my heart had skipped a beat at the thought that they were calling me out from nowhere.

"Whose calling me? Show yourself!" I demanded out loud.

Though I wished I hadn't done that. Because the only other person in the room aside from me who could be talking is the dead one hanging from the ceiling.

"Up here, I'm up here, come on look at me"

My worst fears have been realized, I was right, it was her, she was moving her mouth, eyes and talking to me that I untie her immediately.

"Aaaaaaaaaaghh!" I couldn't stop screaming, I was finally losing it, I couldn't control my fears anymore, it had successfully taken over me.

She then started screaming like the demonic laugh that I heard from the Devil's Ringtone.

Now, more than ever I was being traumatized because of what I'm experiencing right now, it would never end...until I opened my eyes and saw Skipper's blurry face right in front of me, he was mildly shaking my body to wake me up from my nightmare.

"Private wake up, wake up soldier"

It took a moment for me to regain consciousness.

The ordeal was over...for now.

It had to be the most disturbing dream I ever had in my entire life, so dark and morbid.


End file.
